Coal mining jobs. What is the allure? Working in a dark hole in the ground and lung disease threatens. This is good because?

Some of my ancestors, on both sides of my family, were coal miners.  You have to understand that for many of them the only alternative was subsistence farming.  Which was not an alternative if they did not own land or did not sharecrop.  Many were immigrants, new to this country, and they liked that they could make money to buy things that were not available to people like them where they came from.  And it was a family atmosphere - very close-knit, many things shared so you had a larger community to give you strength and there was a great deal of pride among the miners in doing a good and important job.  Eventually for many it was all they knew. 

It pays quite well.

Perhaps they have no choice and are desperate to find a job?
I know how that feels.

  Spoken by someone who takes advantage of the fruit of the labor of coal miners?  (Whether or not anyone uses coal directly, there are many products and services that depend on coal, so theoretically, its mining has something to do with everyday life in our society.)

it probably pays good

Good pay and well-deserved - but also the best available employment for many. This was so in the UK's colliery areas, too, though how many would go back to mining if it were technically and financially possible to re-open a closed, deep mine, is another matter.